When we teach students who want to become garden judges about how to evaluate cultivars as good garden specimens, this trait is mentioned as one of those which is undesirable. There are other undesirable traits of course -blooms which don't open fully, buds which are so placed on the scape so that they can't open well, poor foliage, blooms which exhibit poor substance or don't hold up well during the course of a regular day. ( Etched Eyes comes to mind - it has what I call 'toilet paper' substance.) The late Kate Carpenter had a number of cultivars which couldn't seem to get the scapes out of the foliage. There are others. One( which has won awards) was still booted out of the garden this spring because it consistently blooms down in the foliage. I guess my years of training as a Garden Judge and an instructor are a factor. But this trait bothers me badly, and I won't buy any daylilies that I know bloom very low or those where the bloom size is out of proportion to the scape height. (for example, an 8" bloom on an 18" scape may not bother some, but it would drive me crazy!) IMHO of course!

Floota, I hadn't thought about the foliage getting in the way of the bloom opening, but I guess that's another reason I would want a bloom to stand above the foliage.

I'm glad you mentioned the proportion of the bloom to the scape. I received Handsome Ross Carter as a bonus this year and when I looked up the description it was a 6" bloom on a 14" scape. I wondered what that would look like. Hopefully, it will be okay, but will have to wait and see. As I gain experience and knowledge, I am learning to look for more than just a pretty color.

Thanks for your input and opinion.

Vickie